Brian the Songwriter and His Contemporaries

[Ana-Lu]

I’m always interested to see which pop tunes were being covered by instrumental/EZ/jazz artists and pop vocalists between, say, the mid 60s (arrival of the Beatles) and mid 70s (arrival of disco).  I’m using “pop” in the broadest use of the term here. 

Aside from a few artists who had extraordinary success in this area with a single fluke (i.e. the Doors’ “Light My Fire” and BS&T’s “Spinning Wheel”), it seems like there were a handful of songwriters/composers whose songs were consistently recorded during this era.  They include Lennon/McCartney, Bacharach/David, Jobim, Michel Legrand, Tony Hatch, Jimmy Webb, and Mancini.  (There are probably others whose names escape me right now).

When going through these albums, I’m always surprised at the relative lack of Brian Wilson tunes, especially considering the fact that his (better) songs fit comfortably among those of the songwriters/composers I’ve cited.  It’s especially surprising in light of Brian’s reputation as this wonder-kid and his receiving accolades from the likes of Leonard Bernstein.  The song that seems to show up the most often is “God Only Knows” (Gary McFarland does a great version on his album “Does the Sun Really Shine on the Moon”) followed by “Good Vibrations.”  I have a couple of instrumental versions of “Heroes and Villains,” but can’t remember offhand who did them.  Finally, there is a stunning live version of “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” by Hugh Masekela.

What do you suppose the reason is?  Here are a few I’ve thought of:

1 – The Beach Boys were initially viewed as teen pop and the lyrical association with surfing and hot rods marginalized them as a niche market act, despite the sophistication of the melodies/harmonies. 

2 – There was an increasing tendency to look away from the US and toward the international scene in the 1960s, beginning with French New Wave and Fellini films and culminating with the popularity of Bossa Nova and the British Invasion.  The Beach Boys’ image may not have fit with the international playboy jet set aesthetic.

3 – There was a relatively small window between the arrival of songs like “God Only Knows” and “Good Vibrations” and the Beach Boys decline in popularity (at least in the US).  Also, while Brian continued to write brilliant songs, they became increasingly idiosyncratic.

I would like to hear others’ thoughts on this topic.

[Ron]

I personally believe that it's hard to hear those songs without all the harmonies on them.  So most bands or acts wouldn't be able to record most of them similar to how they were recorded.

Of course the better cover songs are always wayyyy different than the originals, so somebody shoulda grabbed the bull by the horn and did their own no-harmony version of the song, but then again most of Brian's songs, the genius was in the harmony and the production.  There's a few notable exceptions, but most of those you actually DO hear covers of, "God Only Knows" "Caroline No" etc.

[shelter]

I think that Beach Boys songs are generally just too hard to cover. For most of their songs you'd need at least four good singers (or actually three good singers and at least one excellent singer) to do it right and there just aren't a lot of bands with four good singers. Beatles songs are generally much easier. If you're a decent singer and guitarist, you can grab a guitar and play pretty much every Beatles song and it'll probably sound good. But there aren't a lot of Beach Boys songs that you can do that way.

[Ana-Lu]

Brian tunes are no harder to cover than a Jobim, Bacharach or Legrand tune.  The vocal harmonies on the Beach Boys records are part of the arrangement rather than the composition.  The best Beach Boys tunes when stripped of their arrangements and production are very solid melodically and harmonically.  A competent instrumentalist or arranger working during the 1960s would have plenty to work with. 

[shelter]

Brian tunes are no harder to cover than a Jobim, Bacharach or Legrand tune.  

If you play Hey Jude, Let It Be or even Strawberry Fields Forever on your own on an acoustic guitar, it's still pretty much the same song. Now try doing Good Vibrations, I Get Around or In My Room that way. It just doesn't work that well. Especially when compared to the original versions.

[Ana-Lu]

Respectfully, we are talking about two completely different things.

[Aegir]

Has anyone seen Jim Fusco's videos on youtube? He does alot of Beach Boys covers and they're mostly just him and his acoustic guitar and most of them end up turning out pretty good - www.youtube.com/user/jimfusco

In terms of jazzy instrumental covers, though, well... just imagine someone today doing a jazzy instrumental cover of a Hannah Montana song or something. They'd only do it to be ironic, and there was none of that kind of irony in pop music in the 60s. The Beach Boys were not looked at as makers of genius-music, they were looked at as a pop group. And unlike the Beatles, who were a love-song pop group for awhile (more respectable), the Beach Boys were a surfing/hot-rod pop group. I think the Beach Boys were considered a novelty act at first.

[Dr. Tim]

Not able to check the collection right now but I know Dave Alvin did a "solo" version of "Surfer Girl" for his CD on California songwriters a couple years back.   And Todd Rundgren did his de-construct of "Good Vibrations", though that one is rather irritating.

I remember reading somewhere that other jazzheads besides Gary McFarland did "God Only Knows" because they liked playing all the changes, a la Coltrane's "Giant Steps".  Interesting more of them haven't done takes on the Pet Sounds instrumentals.

[Jonas]

Has anyone seen Jim Fusco's videos on youtube? He does alot of Beach Boys covers and they're mostly just him and his acoustic guitar and most of them end up turning out pretty good - www.youtube.com/user/jimfusco

uhhh, I dont know about that. 

[brianc]

Ana-Lu,

You rule. I love this topic.

I think Brian translates really well to the easy listening genre, which thrived during the psychedelic era. Myself, I prefer easy listening records that cover Bacharach, "Windy," Webb or "Magical Mystery Tour" over '50s easy listening. I can't take that many versions of "Stella By Starlight" or "Volare." But that's just me.

While I haven't given it as much thought as required, if I had to guess why the Beach Boys were not translated as thoroughly to easy listening, I'd say that their early rock 'n' roll singles met the fate of most early '60s rock 'n' roll... not covered much by easy listening guys. Not "Louie, Louie," not "Wipe Out," not that much. But a lot of surf exploitation albums (studio pop jobs) and a lot of surf instrumental bands covered "Surfin'," "Surfin' Safari," "Surfin' USA" and "Surfer Girl." There was also a two volume Hollyridge Strings set of Beach Boys covers from 1965. And Jan Berry did "Pop Symphony Vol. 1," which was released in 1965, with several Brian Wilson/Jan Berry compositions translated to the easy listening format. As far as Brian's psych era songs not being covered by easy listening arrangers, well, Brian's psych era recordings weren't that big. Not too many staples on the level of "Light My Fire," outside of "Good Vibrations," "Sloop John B." and "Wouldn't It Be Nice." Mid-'60s vocal surf albums sometimes had cool, cotton-vocal versions of "Sloop John B."

Furthermore, Brian himself cut many solid instrumental tracks in the exotica/easy listening genre, which were his own compositions -- "After the Game," "Summer Means New Love," "Let's Go Away for a While," "Pet Sounds," "Fall Breaks & Back to Winter," "Passing By" and "Diamond Head." Plenty of unreleased instrumentals too.

Lastly, A&M artists like Claudine Longet and Nick DeCaro covered "Pet Sounds" LP material. I'm enamoured with Hugo Montenegro's version of "Good Vibrations," and Young-Holt Unlimited as well as the Gordon Beck Quartet did psych jazz versions of "Good Vibrations"... both amazing. I'm always on the lookout for more, so do advise if you run across some.

[Joshilyn Hoisington]

I too am puzzled by this, and have to chalk it up to reputation.

I've always wanted to hear Sinatra do Don't Talk.  Somewhat lower, obviously, but the changes on that song are plenty sophisticated, as are many others.

Oh well.

[brianc]

Psychedelic covers by crooners are awesome. Andy Williams' "God Only Knows" and Johnny Mathis' "Love Is Blue" album... they sound so sweet. Besides Brian Wilson, I wish that Arthur Lee was covered by crooners and easy listening arrangers during that period. I remember reading somewhere that Arthur tried to emulate Johnny Mathis' voice.

[Ana-Lu]

Psychedelic covers by crooners are awesome...

They're also much more subversive than psychedelic originals by hippies.   

[brianc]

Maybe. Sometimes they just sound downright wise too. Like if my parents saw the soul and beauty in a contemporary song that touched me. Those crooners sort of sound like parents... or maybe it's just that they made parents music. I remember a friend once telling me that a Catholic preist in 1968 quoted "Nowhere Man" in his sermon, and my friend said he knew it was coming too.

[Ron]

In College, I had a really old german professor, the man was easy in his 70's named George Windolz.  The first day of "The Psychology Of Adjustment", here comes this little old man in the room, all hunched over, and presses play on a little tape player at the front of the room, I swear to god he played Paul McCartney's "Another Day", then spent 10 minutes telling us why that song was what the psychology of adjustment was about.  I couldn't believe it. 

[shelter]

Respectfully, we are talking about two completely different things.

OK, sorry then.

[brianc]

[Bump]

Just hoping for more of this kind of conversation.

Not to toot my own horn too much, but what the hell...

The issue of "Dumb Angel Gazette" that I published and edited a few years back has a large article on Brian Wilson/exotica/easy-listening/tiki/A&M, plus sidebars in that article on tiki burlesque, Gary McFarland, celestial sun textiles and KPOI, the Hawaiian pop radio station. I think it holds up really well.

www.dumbangelmagazine.com

Shameless plug... forgive me.

[Ana-Lu]

brianc, I also dig Montenegro's version of "Good Vibrations."  I need to go through all of my Now Sound LPs and see what else I can find.  I'm pretty sure there's a version of GV on one of those Sheffield Labs direct-to-disc audiophile LPs, played by a bunch of guys with muttonchop sideburns and wide lapels.  I LIVE for albums like that.

[brianc]

That sounds like a '70s description, at least the fashion.

Myself, I've never gotten that heavy into British easy listening. I have some albums by several '60s arrangers and they never hold up to American easy listening, for me. But I'm open to recommendations.

[Ana-Lu]

Could be 1969 too.

The only British EZ stuff I got into is some of the MPS library stuff that showed up on the Sound Gallery collections and other stuff like it.  Other than that I don't think I've run across too much.

[brianc]

Well, the Johnny Douglas Orchestra was the group behind the Living Strings series, and he was a British easy listening conductor. James Last, who was from germany, was the biggest selling easy listening artist in England. Then you have John Barry, who was more of a soundtrack guy, but was every bit as cool as Henry Mancini. Barry would be the only one of the three I mentioned that I'd personally get excited about. James Last is not that hot... more of an ironic thing. Living Strings... it's all right. Their Pink Panther is really good '60s grooviness.

[Ana-Lu]

Roy Budd, Laurie Johnson and John Dankworth all did great soundtrack work.  The latter did some incredible jazz albums too.  And then there are the Joe Harriott Indo Jazz Suite and Indo Jazz Fusion albums.  You just need to dig beyond the London/Decca Phase 4 stuff to find the really good British stuff.

[brianc]

I dig.

Actually, I have some records by those people, but never knew they were British. I should have known the "Get Carter" soundtrack was, but alas.

I'm not actually averse to the Phase 4 series. Lot of great stuff there. It's just that I've never come across even one British easy listening conductor or composer in the same league as Equivel, Mancini or Les Baxter, sans John Barry.

[brianc]

Also, I had no idea Joe Harriott was British. There's a cool Collector's Choice two-fer CD of his, which puts two of his Atlantic Records albums on one disc. My foolishness to assume anything, but seeing how it was Atlantic, plus he did a version of "Battle Hymn of the Republic"... well...

[roll plymouth rock]

Psychedelic covers by crooners are awesome...

They're also much more subversive than psychedelic originals by hippies.   

How about albums like Frank Sinatra - Watertown & Four Season - Genuine Imitation Life Gazette? Those are fairly subversive too if you ask me..

And in regards to your first post, the only Heroes & Villains cover I've ever heard is on that Gary Usher instrumentals album. Are there many others?